Poison Idea

from Task #2, Summer 1985> Greg C. interviewed Tom Roberts, the guitarist of Poison Idea, over the telephone on 6/23/85. The other members, Jerry A. (vocals), Chris Tense (bass), and Dean (drums), weren’t present for the interview.

G: What’s new?

T: We got another record out.

G: Oh, really?

T: It’s a Fatal Erection Records compilation. Its got Final Warning, E-l3, Poison Idea and Lockjaw. It’s a Portland compilation called “Drinking Is Great”. I got the test pressings and I’ll send you one. They’re really cool, it came out great. The recording is much better then our 12”, “Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes”.

G: How many cuts do Poison Idea have on it?

T: It’s a 7”, big hole 45 with one song by each band but it’s really superior shit, it’s pretty good.

G: Great.

T: I’d say it’s right up there with “Process Of Elimination” for its variety of bands and everything.

G: How many are you going to press?

T: 1,000 to start and they’re pretty much sold.

G: Speaking of “Drinking Is Great”, what’s the story with Poison Idea and alcohol? I noticed on the “Record Collectors” 12” that you mention drinking and there’s a song called “A.A.” that was written by Jerry. What goes on?

T: Well, that’s Jerry’s song, but it’s basically a way of life for all of us. Drinking.

G: What do you drink? What fuels Poison Idea?

T: Anything. Anything with alcohol in it. Absolutely anything from the cheapest wine to the finest scotch.

G: Does this help you guys play better live, or what?

T: Um, it helps Jerry play better live. The band generally doesn’t get drunk before we play but we drink a few beers. We have definitely blown many a show because of alcohol so therefore it’s a tribute. That’s where it’s at for us.

G: You guys have been together about three years now right?

T: No, it’ll be like 5 years in November.

G: It’s always been the same line up?

T: No, it started out it was Chris, the bass player, played guitar and a guy who played with Final Warning, who now plays in Trash with some other guy from M.D.C. down in Eugene, Oregon who were on that P.E.A.C.E. compilation, was the bass player. Dean was the drummer from the beginning and Jerry and Chris pretty much formed the band.

G: So you aren’t an original member?

T: No, I joined in June of ‘81 but my old band The Imperialist Pigs were around before Poison Idea and we did all our shows together. The two bands were pretty tight. Just about every show Poison Idea did was with The Pigs and vice versa.

G: How did you end up in Poison Idea?

T: Well, I pretty much stole Jerry away from Poison Idea and he started singing for The Imperialist Pigs but we called it Poison Idea for like two shows. Then the guys in the Pigs got tired of it and they dropped out and the original members of Poison Idea started back without Chris Tense and we played with me on guitar, Glenn, the guy who plays in Trash, played bass and Dean on drums. We did that for about a year and we threw Glenn out in August of ‘82, got Chris Tense and it’s been the same ever since then.

G: That’s when the 7” EP “Pick Your King” came out right?

T: Right, the EP we recorded in January of ‘83 and it’s mostly songs from ‘81 and ‘82. There’s all these dates next to the song titles but some of those dates aren’t right, some of them are actually older then that but we just guessed.

G: You only printed 1,000 of that EP and they were all on clear vinyl right?

T: Right.

G: Then you released a limited edition (1,000) on red vinyl of the “Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes” 12” EP. On the cover of this 12” it has a picture of some really rare discs and on the back it says “Do not pay more than $25”. Why did a band who’s obviously gearing their products to collectors choose that title?

T: Well, it was going to have another title but when I took a look at the picture on the cover I thought it looked really pretentious so I changed the name to that. It really had nothing to do with the record itself but we had the picture and we had a hard time figuring out what we were going to put on the cover and so that’s how it ended up that.

G: Was there another name that it was going to be called?

T: (Laughs) Yeah, I don’t want to say.

G: Okay. Back to songs on the album. Is “Rubber Husband” a slag on marriage?

T: It’s kind of a slag on, well, it’s not really a slag at all it’s just kind of like a statement. It’s Jerry’s song so I’m probably not the best one to explain it other then it’s probably about submissives. Jerry told me originally it was about the old, other guitar player in The Pigs who used to let his wife beat the hell out of him. He’d come to practice with black eyes and scratches on his face and bruises all over his body from his wife, who was about twice his size, kicking the shit out of him. It was inspired by that and that’s about all I know.

G: I’ve noticed that the 12” sounds better than the 7” and that Jerry’s vocals aren’t as “growly” as they were. There also seems to be a slight change in direction...

T: On the first record the only thing that really came out good was the vocals and the drums. The recording on that first record was terrible, it’s really shitty and that’s why we probably won’t repress it.

G: That’s a shame because there’s some really incredible songs on there...

T: Yeah, well what we might do is in the future rerecord the whole thing and release it just the way it is – 7” with 13 songs rerecorded. This will get the power across because it’s really lacking compared to what it sounds like live. That’s off in the distance though.

G: Your style change has been very slight and you’ve always been known as a thrash or a hardcore band. How does Pushead get off calling you a “speedcore’ band?

T: I really don’t know. I disagree with him other then one of the songs we put on his compilation “Cleanse The Bacteria”, which I’m not really happy with the way our songs came out because they were mixed poorly. When we gave him those songs we really should’ve done a better job on them because they’re really not done right. One of them might be construed as speedcore but I don’t know why he says that, that’s his trip. We’re not metalish at all, you know, what I consider heavy metal.

G: How come it was so difficult to get “Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes”? Was it part of the concept?

T: Well, because the distribution, pretty much, all went on the West Coast. Almost all of them went to Systematic, Rough Trade, Toxic Shock and only 100 went out to Dutch East. I don’t know how much the East Coast stores order from Rough Trade and Systematic but I imagine they get most of their stuff from Important and Dutch East. So that’s probably why.

G: Now you’re apparently getting more records this way.

T: Yeah, definitely. We’re trying.

G: You’ve repressed “Record Collectors” on black vinyl now right?

T: Yeah, on black.

G: Who runs Fatal Erection Records?

T: It’s mainly me. Malcome Conover (from Eugene, Oregon) helps out too but lately it’s just been me. Malcome’s going to do his own projects in the future. The two records Malcome put out, that he had the most to do with, was E-13 and we pretty much split the Final Warning project. The last couple of projects have been pretty much me. For no other reason other then Malcome was out of town and didn’t have a job and didn’t have any money and there’s a variety of things contributing to why that happened. Plus, he’s 115 miles down the road which makes it a lot harder to get shit done.

G: Have you guys appeared on any other compilations besides “Grievous Musical Harm” and “Cleanse The Bacteria” and now “Drinking Is Great”?

T: Nope.

G: So if you have those three recordings plus the two Poison Idea discs you’d have all the publicly available recordings of Poison Idea?

T: Yeah, except for a demo tape we put out before “Pick Your King”.

G: Was there any different material on that?

T: Let me think. Okay, the three songs that were on “Grievous Musical Harm” are really poor dubs of the demo tape. They sound much better then that on the demo.

G: How did you hook up with Xcentric Records to do “Grievous Musical Harm”?

T: Hmm, Pushead. I heard that “Raw War” tape and I thought it was pretty good, so... The thing got really good distribution and we got a lot of mail from that. But Pushead pretty much hooked us up with Shesk (of Xcentric).

G: You guys have any plans of touring on the east coast?

T: If these records had sold quicker then I thought they would we would’ve, but it’s going slow and distributors take so long to pay you back that we can’t get the money up to get a van, you know, to get out of town.

G: So when you do it, will it be a U.S. tour or an East Coast tour?

T: Well, I’d like to go straight to the East Coast because we’ve definitely got more fans on the East Coast then on the west. There’s just no doubt about it. We can just tell by the mail that comes in. We’ve got enough material to do a 15 song LP and we’ll hopefully have that out by the end of the year. We’ll hopefully record it by the end of this year and have it out, you know, by the beginning of next year. The material that’ll be on this LP will be a progression from what’s on the last record and much better. I’d say in the last 6 months we’ve progressed more then we have in the whole 4 years before though.

G: Is Jerry still doing most of the songwriting?

T: It looks like Jerry will have like three quarters of the songs. I’ll have two or three and Chris will have three or four and Jerry will do the rest.

G: Does he come up with the lyrics and you guys write the music?

T: Well on the songs that say Jerry A, “A.” next to them, he does everything. Everybody adds a little bit though, but he writes most of the music that’s got his name next to it.

G: Does he play an instrument?

T: Yeah, he can play guitar and bass. Everybody in the band can pretty much play everything a little bit.

G: Can you elaborate on the religion-oriented artwork on your records such as the “Pick Your King” EP with Jesus on one side and Elvis on the other?

T: When I thought of that I thought it was a pretty funny idea. They’re the two most well-known faces in the world, what else can I say? It gives you a choice.

G: It looks like you’ve made your choice because on the back of “Record Collectors” you have a picture of Elvis with “The King” written under it.

T: Yeah, right. That was it, we picked our king.

G: So you guys blew off Jesus then, huh?

T: Yeah, pretty much. I mean there’s really no choice, is there?

G: I guess not. Both yourself and Malcome are fairly big record collectors. How long have you been collecting?

T: Oh, well, I always bought records from when I first got into it, you know, but I really started seriously collecting about 3 years ago, 4 years ago, like in ‘81.

G: Buying lots of records must give you a lot of musical influences. What are your influences?

T: God, I listen to everything from Elvis Presley to Hank Williams to Syd Barrett to all the punk stuff. I spend about $100 a month on records. All the spare money I get.

G: Do you work a job outside of the band?

T: No.

G: You live off the band at this point?

T: Well, (laughs) pretty much.

G: How often do you guys gig in your area?

T: Well, we played three times in June so far. We’re playing tomorrow night with Battalion Of Saints and Adrenalin O.D. and about two weeks ago we played with Raw Power and a week before that we played with The Dicks and The Accused.

G: You guys have played with The Accused a lot...

T: We’ve played with them a few times, yeah.

G: When are you going to release the “Drinking Is Great” comp?

T: It should be out in a week. We’re just getting the cover art finished up and I think the record’s going to be here any day. The labels are down there and it should be out any day. It’s really good.

G: Will it be on colored vinyl?

T: No, not the first pressing because it ends up that colored vinyl is what held up the 12” so long, so we’re not doing it now. When you ask for colored vinyl it seems like it takes another month and a half before you get your records and I wanted to get this thing out quick. This problem delayed “Record Collectors” for about three months.

G: When was that originally released?

T: It came out on Elvis’ birthday. Believe it or not, the first records came to my door, just out of coincidence, on January 8, ‘85, his 50th birthday.

G: Has Poison Idea started recording the new album yet?

T: No, but we’re making plans on going into the studio in August.

G: Where do you record?

T: At Falcon Studio, but they just moved and it’s the same guy’s studio but now it’s going to be 24 track.

G: So you’ll have a little more flexibility there...

T: Yeah. We used 16 track on the last one and 8 on the first.

G: You were pretty happy with the way the 12” came out, right?

T: Not really. I like the guitar sound but everything else is kind of fucked up. The kick drum sounds good. The vocals are too low because we mixed it when we were really drunk. We were way to drunk. We didn’t have enough money to mix it right and we recorded the songs from “Cleanse The Bacteria” at the same time we recorded the songs from the 12” and when me and Jerry went in to mix it down and put the vocals on we just got too fucked up. It’s not mixed right and the bass is way too low on “Time To Go” at the beginning and I had to go and remix a couple songs. If you listen to it, the second song on the second side, “Rich Get Richer”, is really loud and then it goes into “Don’t Like It Here” and it’s really quiet and you can’t hear the bass. There’s a lot of mistakes on there. When you get “Drinking Is Great”, listen to the song on there and compare it to the songs off the 12”. It’s the same exact studio except that we had our shit together when we did it and it’s mixed a lot better and you can hear everything. The new record is recorded in the same studio, the same equipment, with the same engineer. Everything’s the same except that we did it right. You learn by mistakes and we’ve made some mistakes.

G: Is most of the material on the upcoming LP songs that you’ve written in the last year?

T: Yeah, except we’re going to throw on several old thrashers from the time around the first record that we never recorded and should be on a record. There might be three songs, right together, that’ll be really fast. The new stuff’s going to be more along the lines of what “A.A.” is like. I think the songs are really better and everybody’s writing the best songs they ever wrote.

G: What’s your favorite song that you’ve recorded so far?

T: Probably “A.A. and the song on the new comp, which is “Laughing Boy”. I like “Time To Go” too, except the mix sounds really fucked up.

G: I really like “Rubber Husband” too and the whole first EP is great. I was really amazed when that came out. It just seemed to come out of nowhere.

T: Yeah, well a lot of people, in a lot of reviews, have always said, ”Well, Poison Idea owe a lot to Black Flag and Minor Threat. Black Flag might be accurate, but Minor Threat isn’t because when S.O.A. came out that was the first Dischord record we had heard. Poison Idea had been together for a couple of months and we thought they sounded like us. Our total influence was The Germs, Black Flag and Discharge, the first two Discharge EP’s. That’s what we sounded like. We never really compared with the D.C. bands, although we didn’t mind it to be compared to the big bands like that. When we heard those records we thought they sounded like us. In fact, when they came into the record stores the first time I walked in the guy at the store says, “Hey, look at this record, S.O.A., it’s got 10 songs on it, it sounds just like you guys!” At that point the scene was just completely nonexistent and we had like 8 fans.

G: How big do the crowds get when you have shows?

T: The shows are great right now, they’re packed. We get 200-300 people into a small club and it’s really going good. Every band I’ve done in Portland is getting paid like twice in Portland what they’re making in Seattle. Portland’s really the only city with any significance in the state. Eugene’s got a little scene down there but the rest of the state you can just kiss, um, well, that’s not true. There’s groups of people in every town. I’d say Portland’s the biggest without a doubt.

G: What do you do when you’re not working with the band?

T: Get drunk. I spend most of my time either getting drunk or nursing a hangover.

G: How old are the band members?

T: I’m 26 and everybody else is 22.

G: If this new comp goes over well will Poison Idea tour then or will you wait until your LP comes out?

T: I’m hoping that on the East Coast our record sales are really going to pick up. I don’t know, I thought we’d sell 5,000 copies of “Record Collectors” and we’ve only sold about 1,600 so far so I’m kind of, I don’t know, I’m surprised it didn’t sell more. Maybe I didn’t advertise it good enough, maybe it’s not positive enough (laughs). I don’t know. I think it’s a really good record. I think it’s better then most.

G: I’m surprised it hasn’t sold better...

T: It’s probably because we haven’t toured, that’s probably part of it.

G: Is the record still available through you? T: Yeah for $5, cash only.

G: Do you guys do many interviews?

T: Yeah, well the problem was we did a lot of interviews that never got published. When we first started out every interview we’d get in the mail we’d do and ask for them to send us a copy. Most of the time the interviews didn’t get done and the magazine didn’t come out and we got pissed off about that and we quit doing interviews with these “I got a fanzine coming out, first issue. How about an interview?” and we’d do this interview and nothing would happen.

G: Yeah that’s bu1lshit! Anything else you’d like to say?

T: Yeah. Wait until the LP comes out! If that doesn’t do it nothing will!

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